hi


back to 1001
80. Ruby Chocolate 82. Tier 2

October 21st, 2020

Writing... Live?

From some self-analysis (see: 20/10/20 Chocolate) I came to the idea of doing some live writing. I’m sure I’m not the first to have thought of this, I can imagine countless writers in both the digital age, and before, have considered the possibilities of live writing as an art form, nevertheless I’m eager to explore it. My first idea was a website (probably part of my already existing one) where you could log-in, or just view, and I would be able to log in from the other end and just simply write, a plain text doc would show up, ideally live, and people could watch along, as I typed. Two Big Questions: Who would watch this? Do I want my writing to be judged as it comes out? I think the answer to Number 1 can be easily explained away with the Grand Artistic Argument (new phrase coined), the notion that, if you, the artist, found it interesting enough to create, then there will most likely be at least one other person who shares a similar artistic taste who will want to consume it. This is how art works, and consumerism, creating something that either more or less people will want to eat up. Beyond saying ‘I want to make it so I will’ which is, in itself, valid, the idea of a story being written live before your eyes is quite cool. With regards to the literature itself, this will especially work with more tense moments in a story. I guess you can also do quite cool things where you go back and change things as well? ie. halfway through the story someone’s gender changes, or it all becomes first person, or the location changes, or who’s talking in a dialogue changes. There are definitely ways to be clever with it, I just have to be clever enough to work out how, and I back myself, to an extent. Spell check lol. Perhaps if I did them once a week, or at a regular time, people would be more inclined to log in and check out what’s going on, like a live perfromance. 7:30 on a Monday night what are people up to. Although, must consider, if this is going to be part of my 1000 word challenge, it takes a good while to write 1000 good words. Although I’ve just done 400 here in not very long… Probably not the most riveting read. I think the longevity of the stories could be increased by their having been written live; you have the whole ‘I saw that being written’ aspect, or ‘Oh they were originally called Susan but he changed it’. I think that’s quite cool. The answer to question Number 2 requires more thought. The biggest dilemma facing me on the face of it is: Do I want to feel like my writing is being judged live. Which defers to the question, Do I want my writing to be judged at all? My current entire word count of writing, including all the stories I’ve ever written is encroaching on 100,000, the length of, for example, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hobbit, or The Prisoner of Azkaban. In essence, I sizeable novel. That is not to say I consider myself anywhere near being a novelist, that is a skill I simply don’t have (yet, hopefully), but it’s not a small amount of writing, and not many people have read any of it. Mum’s read a fair bit of course, Lucy’s read some, a few have gone out to their storysake’s. Nothing, however, is in the public realm, or has really been judged or scrutinised by anyone (apart from mum) with any literary interest. So, the question is, do I want it to be? Or are these just nice little practise works to pass the doldrums and keep by artistic instinct sharp. For the record, I count almost all Art as storytelling, and so writing a story is practise for anything artistic I may do, acting, painting, or otherwise. The once-a-week idea can help with this, in that I could separate, in my artistic mind, the work that was being produced for immediate public consumption, and the work used as either a challenge, practise or diary purposes. Another Question: What do I write about? So far, I’ve managed to keep a good mix of stories, updates, thoughts, musings, even some poetry and a bit of random nothingness (facebook friends springs to mind). After a brief consultation with Ollie, we decided the simplest way to go about making this possible would be utilising the endless ingenuity of Alphabet Inc. and they’re smart-ass programmes, ie Google Docs. Instant live updates on typing, anyone with the link can access #linkinbio. It’s not particularly ‘professional’ or personal to me or my work, but Ollie seemed to prefer that idea, using something that exists as a predominately office tool and making it AaRt. Lucy made a good point about the ‘planning’ idea in that it would make it not live, in the sense of a spontaneous creation. But then, theatre is ‘planned’ and ‘live’. Where is the line?! The options I have going forward: Do nothing. Say nothing. There was no plan beyond two short conversations (and this written record) Do it! Go wild! Pop a link on the socials and see what you feel like doing whenever! CrazzYy! Do it. With plan. Once a week, structured writing, with twists and turns, careful combinations. Do it, mixed. Structure but free write, doesn’t have to be the same day, but organised in advance - good for social media. Again I come to the question which I’m sure must haunt all and every artist, will anybody come/care/watch/listen/read? My instinct, as an unreleased, unpublished, unannounced writer, is that nobody will take an interest, but I could be wrong. And, after all, everything has to start somewhere. AaRt aArT AarT aARt ArRt aRrT Arrt aRRt ArTt aRtT ArtT aRTt

back to 1001

©2007-2024 Benedict Esdale